Things I Will Miss

If you've been reading my past few posts and thinking wow, it sounds like Kristen is really jazzed about moving to Blacksburg! then you would be correct. However, that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of things about California I won't miss. Maybe even some things about Los Angeles... well I won't go that far. Here is my list of things I know for sure I'll be missing. 

-Proximity to family and friends. From our current apartment, I'm close to my new friends in LA, an hour and half drive from San Diego/Oceanside where my brothers live, and a three and half hour drive from my parents. I won't be able to see my sister-in-laws and my nieces and nephew as often let alone my brothers, who both work out of town. AND my parents will be even farther away! What's more? Our place in LA is only a quick two hour flight to Seattle, where we like to pretend that we live part time. It'll be 10-12 hours total travel time to get to Seattle or San Diego from Blacksburg. Ugh! I'm still in shock over the distance and I think this will be the single hardest thing about moving for me. 

-Disneyland. Mark and I both have annual passes and I love the Disneyland Resort (DLR). Living about a thirty minute drive from the park, it is easy to make evening or half day trips and I'm really going to miss Mickey Mouse. I don't know what I'll do when I have to face buying plane tickets, paying for a hotel, and buying hopper passes every time I want to go now! Sadly, I think the answer is that regular Disney trips are going on hold for a bit now. However, we will be moving much close to Disney WORLD. 

-Avocados. There is a reason why in other states when you order something called a "Californian ___" it is the same menu item with an avocado on it. I love avocados and I am accustomed to putting them on most everything: salads, sandwiches, burgers, tacos, omelets, etc. I'm going to miss being able to add avo to anything I order in a restaurant and I'm surely going to miss being able to buy fresh, good quality avocado in the grocery stores for a good price. 

-Trader Joes. I think it's interesting that Trader Joes seems to have this reputation as an elitist hippy store in states/regions that don't have a Trader Joes. Maybe for some people that rep fits? But for me, I love shopping there because of the good prices, the good quality, and the nice people who work there. I mean, where else can you buy $1.99 cheerios, $0.19 bananas, and have a checker remember that you're from Washington but moving away to Virginia? No where else in LA, I'll tell you that. 

-Eight Lane Freeways. Okay, I know I whine about the traffic, and I know I hate commuting. And overall it is probably a good thing I'll be leaving that life behind. But when there's light traffic (this does actually happen, sometimes) driving in LA can be exhilarating. Especially in Mark's WRX, in the fast lane. The urban girl in me loves taking six freeways to get to Disneyland, loves taking the cloverleaf interchange on the inside lane... all at or below the speed limit of course...

-The Weather. Hard to complain about the small window of weather we've enjoyed in the last six years. Rarely too hot or too cold, not too muggy or to dry, pretty much perfect year round. I am looking forward to real seasons, but it is nice only needing to own a spring wardrobe and being able to wear flip flops in February. I'm sure I'll have a part of me that always misses that. 

-Apartment Amenities. I won't lie. I'm going to miss having a pool, hot tub, package service, 24 hour maintenance, huge trash and recycling bins that I never have to bring to the street, and night security. Not that those things make apartment living worth it, but they still make the list of things I'll miss. Especially the hot tub.

-Coffee Shops. I think my days of living in the cute little coffee shop culture are numbered. Blacksburg has two Starbucks in town and I honestly didn't see any other coffee shops anywhere. And none of the grocery stores had coffee shops in them like the do here. I honestly don't know how any of the Tech students graduate!

I'm sure there'll be more things I'll miss, but that's it for now. Seven nights left in our LA apartment and then we're off! 

House Hunt Trip Wrap Up

Our last few days in Blacksburg were lots of fun because we were able to stop house hunting and pretty much just vacation. We did absurd things like go out to dinner, go on long drives, check out the campus, enjoy breakfast and coffee, and read books and watch Myth Busters. We truly thought we would be house hunting right up until the last day of our trip and that we might have to fax things back and forth to California, possibly have to wait a couple of business days for credit checks to go through, and perhaps break some legs to fight for a space to live. It turns out it was very easy! So we took advantage of our extra time and enjoyed the vacation.

Walking on Prices Fork Road 

The campus is all styled in what is called "Hokie Stone." As far as I'm concerned it should be called castles! If you read any of my posts last summer you might remember my loose definition of castle. If it has turrets of any kind, it's a castle! In addition to the architecture, the sprawling lawns and beautiful blooming trees make this campus one of the prettiest we've been on recently.

Turrets=Castle.

If I would have known I could live in dorms like these I might have picked a different college. MIGHT. 

If only graduate school was really here... (This is actually grad division, where the admins work)

When I was looking through the pictures, there was one that reminded me so much of a hotel we stayed in when we were in England!

England

Virginia Tech

On Saturday Virginia Tech happened to be having their spring scrimmage. Mark and I are eager to be part of a football community again and while we'll always bleed purple, we are okay with rooting for the Hokies also. The game was free, parking was free, and the 40,000 people watching the game made for a fun atmosphere. AND I got to wear a tshirt with a turkey on it (40% off at the bookstore, w00t!)

On Sunday before our flight, Mark's new PI took us on a hike. Now, when we think hike, we think of taking .25mile walk from the parking garage to the park entrance at Disneyland instead of taking the tram. What can I say? We live a pretty sedentary lifestyle. However, this hike ended up being a 4+ mile loop trail to a waterfall and back. Aside from the embarrassment of huffing and puffing through the whole hike, it was AMAZING. It was also about 30minutes away from our new house. I can't believe we'll be living so close to a national forest. Um, if this is exercise, then yes please! Apparently if you hike it in January/February, the falls are completely frozen. We are definitely planning to do that this winter in addition to getting out and walking and hiking more.

We got home late last night and were greeted at the LAX airport by honking taxis and a huge traffic jam. It felt like 1:30am to us because of the time change. When we walked in to our apartment we were sorry to see that the boxes remain stubbornly unpacked and I have a ton of work left. We've got more crazy times ahead, including yet another weekend trip before we embark on our cross country drive. But first... I must take a nap!

House Hunters: Lingwood Edition Revealed

Tonight we signed the lease! Forget the options? Check last night's post here.

We chose.....



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Option THREE!!!! Country Mansion with Alpaca Neighbors

We LOVE LOVE LOVE this house and can't wait to move in. Here is the breakdown and the "reveal" of the real situations. I apologize for tricking you when I wrote the post last night to make it sound like the three options were all amazing.

House 1: Whomping Willow. We truly loved the character of this house. It had many of the characteristics we are looking for in our forever home. The sunroom offered me an amazing craft space and Mark would have plenty of space for an office. However, the bottom line was that with the oil heat and window unit A/C, we were worried we would freeze in the winter and burn in the summer. In addition to that, the layout was quirky and the kitchen had odd dining space, forcing us into choosing between a dining room and a guest bedroom. And, although it was a single family home, it was stuck right in the middle of tons of townhomes and all the way out in Christiansburg, making for a longer drive than Mark currently has now in LA. The final nail in the coffin was the pet policy--if we wanted to get a dog, we would have to pretend like we only had one cat and we could only get a 30lb or less dog.

House 2: Big City Living in the Country. I can't believe people actually thought we might pick this option!!! This was actually our back up option to be used in an emergency "we don't have anywhere to live" situation only. Clearly we have not been complaining loudly enough about our small space living situation. We are not interested in ever sharing walls, or floors, or ceilings, or walkways, or parking, or anything about our living space with 500+ other residents ever again. For the last six years we have had 

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS 

but we've been stuck in 

ittty bitty living spaces. 

In addition to generally not wanting to have anything to do with an apartment ever again, this particular apartment wanted to nickel and dime us with $200 application processing fees (in addition to the application fee), non-optional cable packages, absurd pet policies, and was basically over priced. It also seemed to have a slight undergrad problem, mostly in that it had some. 

House 3: Our new house! We basically walked in and said "we'll take it." It was a bit more than that of course-- we toured the whole thing and had a quick private talk, but there wasn't much discussion for us. It has everything we want, especially tons and tons of space. It is also heated/cooled with a heat pump and located on an adorable country road. It has ceiling fans in the upstairs in addition to dual climate control for the two floors. There is a large back deck, huge fenced yard (can you hear the sound of a doggy playing fetch?) and a huge front yard. Not only do we get such an amazing yard, but we don't have to take care of it. Yard care is included in our rent. While there's no garage, there is a shed for tools and stuff in the backyard. Most importantly and hardest to quantify, it felt like home. There are definite downsides, but we'll make them work and, after all, we're not buying it and we didn't have tons of options. We are looking forward to moving into it in three weeks and making it our new home. Now... where to buy furniture, and possibly a pool table? 

Here I am again, showing off our new house: (I thought for sure this picture would give it away!)

House Hunters: Lingwood Edition

Today we looked at three homes, and all were great options!

Option one is a three bedroom, one and a half bath house in the nearby town of Christiansburg. It's about a 17minute drive to campus and has a tree much like the Whomping Willow in the front yard. This house is full of country farmhouse charm including dark hardwood floors, white molding, sage green paint, and two sunrooms. It has an eat-in kitchen, basement, and detached garage. Unfortunately, it's heated with oil heat and cooled with window unit air-conditioners. Cost is $1250/month plus utilities, we do our own yard work. 

Option 1: Front of house

Option 1: Living room (with view into bedroom/office)

Option 1: kitchen

Option two is a three bedroom, three bath loft-style apartment in an upscale apartment community only a few minutes from campus. It has high end finishes including a huge kitchen with nice appliances, tall ceilings, and large closets. There is also a full size washer/dryer in a utility room. The unit is on the top floor and the complex has the amenities that this LA couple is used to: a work out room, package pick up, pool, hot tub, and business center. It is truly big city living in a small town. On the downside, it's an apartment. Cost is about $1450/month + utilities, no yard work or snow shoveling. 

Option 2: Kitchen

Option 2: Living room with view into 2nd bedroom and bathroom

Option 2: bathroom

Option three is a four bedroom, two bath split level country house on a large lot. Clocking in at about 13 minutes to campus, this option is still in Blacksburg but nestled on the outskirts of town. Believe me when I say outskirts; the neighbors down the street have alpacas chillin' in their front yard. It has an eat-in kitchen, large deck and huge yard. This house is so big you could play laser tag in it. The bedrooms are nicely sized but the whole thing has carpet (no hardwoods), and the split level 80s style leaves a bit lacking in the character department. Compared to the other two options, this kitchen has less counter space and is not as updated. Cost is about $1250/month + utilities, yardwork included but we have to shovel our own snow. 

Option 3: Front 

Option 3: Kitchen

Option 3: family room

So, what's it going to be? Leave a comment with your vote. You can check out more pics in our picasa album if you need help deciding.

Option 1: Whomping Willow

Option 2: Big City Living in the Country

Option 3: Country Mansion with Alpaca Neighbors

I'll post what we chose tomorrow night after we sign our lease and it's official! 

Blacksburg house hunting trip-- Day 1

Welcome sign at the ROA airport

It took us about ten hours door to door to get from our apartment in Los Angeles to our hotel in Blacksburg. It involved a taxi, two planes, and a rental car. Whew! With the time change and everything, it truly was an epic travel event to get from California to Virginia. I guess the days of the puddle jumpers from LAX>SEA are rapidly coming to a close.

Cherry trees (?) in bloom, out of control! So pretty. 

Our first impressions of Virginia are that it's very green and springy here. It's spring like I imagined it and things are colorful, blooming, and beautiful. It feels very much like "the country" to us though we have a lot of exploring to do. I think "pastoral" might be a better description. From the sky, it looked nothing like California or Washington. The hills (though I am told they are mountains) roll gently in little bunches and everything is covered by trees or grass. All of the houses are huge and most of the yards don't have fences. However, parts of it do remind me of driving through the back roads of San Luis Obispo/Arroyo Grande in the late winter, only with much different flora. I hope to get more and better pictures up this week as we have time to take them.

Apparently people refer to it as "Tech" the same way we say "U-Dub". Thus noted. 

On the drive... lots of purple flowers! 

The view from our hotel

Tomorrow.... we find a new home! It's going to be house/apartment hunting HGTV style. Three homes, three choices, one decision! 

Moving update

Our move is really happening! We have some actual boxes packed now, though most of them are still waiting patiently to be filled with stuff. The cats have a reservation at the kennel club (my mom and I are going to fly them out for the big move) and all the little details are falling into place. The real big packing won't happen until the week before we move, because who wants to eat on paper plates for weeks? Also, due to culling our stuff down every time we move, we simply don't have that much stuff. 

The next exciting travel thing is our house hunting trip. On Tuesday Mark and I are flying out to Blacksburg to find a place to live. I'm so excited for this trip for so many reasons. First and foremost, it will be so good to get a lease all figured out and to know exactly where we're going to live. Also, I can't even believe what some of our potential options are. While we don't have very many choices, some of them are double or even triple the square footage of what we currently live in! It is unfathomable. 

I'm also looking forward to just seeing the town. For now, it's been this imaginary place that I've mostly made up based on things I've read online. Going there will help me visualize our new home and make the whole thing a lot more real. Cause, you know, the boxes strewn all over my living room haven't made it real enough. 

It's going to be interesting too for me to "feel" how the flight is from California to Virginia. Between the time change and the connection it's going to be basically a whole day of flying. My attention span can barely handle the short 2.5 hour flights to Seattle. I pity the people sitting near me on the upcoming long flights. Poor, poor Mark. And for those of you who know us both... My mom and I are flying together in May to bring the cats over. That's me, my mom, my two cats, on an airplane for several hours. You just think about that and laugh. 

Once we get back from our house hunting trip, we'll have just a short week to finish packing up, a quick family trip to Vegas, then the movers come and we'll be off on our grand road trip with Steph and Julia! Expect a lot of posts in the coming weeks as this is going to be a huge month for Mark and me!